Gunslinger Boy
by Jewell Trim
Summary: The Agency is an underground organization that takes young children that were rejected by society and suffered great loss. They train these children to become trained assassins under the care of their big brother 'handler'. The Agency is employed to counter terrorism, hunt and kill serial killers and basically handle all the cases that the government can't.
1. I'm a Tanner

**A/N: These short stories are based on an anime that my brother watched. I'm watching it right now for the first time. I really liked the music which I listen to while writing these. Music puts you in the mood. Anyway, the basis of the boys being kid assassins is like the anime Gunslinger Girl. I decided to be uncreative with the name so you'll know where it came from. I'll try not to get too graphic but to be safe I'll just say don't expect all cake and ice cream.**

Marcos listened to the sound of his own footsteps as the heels of his shoes clicked against the tile floor. The paper cup that held his coffee warmed his cool hand. The long corridor that he was walking through wasn't insulated like the rest of the campus. No one ventured down here often enough to bother fixing it.

The room he was looking for was the second to last door on his left. The door was locked and he pulled out the key he was given from out of his pocket. An annoying creaking sound was heard as he opened the door and stepped in.

The only furniture in the small room was a small bed. It occupier was a small boy with long wavy brown hair that was shoulder length. Blue eyes stared back at him with uncertainty.

Marcos checked the folder he had brought with him. It was a profile description and introduction to the boy who would soon be his. It didn't give much information other than the boy's name and how he came to be here.

The boy had been abandoned to live on the streets after his mother died. He had been found hiding behind a dumpster half dead. When they took him to the hospital he attacked several nurses and tried to escape. He was deemed mentally unstable and hostile. They wanted to send the boy to a psych ward but the Agency decided to take him in.

Their goal was to train this boy like the others that they had found.

The Agency was an organization that worked alongside the government. They used children who were rejected by society and trained them to become killing machines.

This boy was going to be the newest addition. It wasn't easy to condition them, and to keep them from acting against orders. That's where the Agency used brainwashing and other conditioning techniques to create the perfect soldier. They also fed the children drugs so they wouldn't feel any pain because the fear of pain and hurting oneself could affect the mission.

Marcos sat down on the end of the bed and watched as the boy shifted from him.

They had given the boy drugs so he would be too tired to fight. It almost seemed like the boy was cowering.

Marcos took a deep breath, "Are you afraid of me?"

The boy didn't say anything so he continued. "There's no reason to be scared of me. I'm your new big brother."

The boy frowned, not understanding what he was being told.

Marcos had been adamant that they didn't overdo it with the drugs so he could talk to the boy, and so the boy would understand what he was saying.

"From here on, your name shall be Tanner."

~I'm a Tanner~

Tanner gripped his Barrett M98B and looked through the scope. Through his eyepiece he could see the target he was aiming for. He fired off several times before adjusting his sniper rifle to aim at his next target.

Marcos listened as the shots rang through his ears as he watched from behind the boy. He watched his progress with his binoculars and clicked his tongue.

"Stop."

Tanner stopped shooting and looked up at his big brother. His face showed no emotion and Marcos couldn't tell if the boy was confused, nervous or upset.

Marcos shoved the pair binoculars in the boy's hands and pointed to the targets.

"Are you even taking the time to actually focus your scope on your target? You aim for the chest, neck or head. Hitting them in the arm or shoulder won't stop them."

"Yes sir." The words were cold and formal.

Marcos sighed and watched as the boy set the binoculars down and tried again.

Glancing down to the other shooting yard, Marcos watched as Emmanuel sat in a chair watching his charge.

The blonde he was paired with was tall and slender. He was one of the older boys and had been in the Agency for over two years. Emmanuel had a weird way of 'spoiling' the blonde by giving him a new pistol for his birthday (The day they were named). Right now the blonde was firing off a pair of Ballester-Molinas. It was fascinating and scary at how good the boy was with a gun.

After watching for a few minutes, he looked back to Tanner who was reloading his rifle.

It would be good to let him see a veteran at work.

"That's it for today."

Tanner looked up. There was a hint of surprise before his expression went back to neutral. "Yes sir."

Marcos waited as Tanner packed up his things in its case. When he saw that the boy was ready he handed the boy his binoculars again and pointed at the target he wanted him to look at.

"I want you to take a look at the boy with the Ballester-Molinas."

Tanner put the binoculars up to his face and looked at the boy who was now in a practice yard. The blonde weaved through the rundown structure, firing at targets without injuring hostages. When the blonde finished and was returning to his handler Tanner put the seeing piece down.

"When you're finished training, you'll be able to do that and more." Marcos promised.

Tanner wasn't listening, but was still watching the blonde.

Marcos noticed that he was talking to himself and smiled.

"Would you like to meet him?"

Tanner nodded, but still wasn't paying any attention to Marcos.

Marcos led them down to the other practice field where Emmanuel was still sitting.

"I see that you're working hard as usual." Marcos said in a way of a greeting.

Emmanuel waved him over.

"There's nothing I can really teach him, he is better off self studying." Emmanuel said as the blonde reloaded his pistols a few yards away.

"I wish I can say the same for Tanner. He has promise at being a good sniper, but right now his shots can't kill."

"Well, it only matters when it comes to the real thing. If he can't shoot to kill and kill a target then you may have to do more conditioning."

Marcos sighed as he watched Tanner approach the blonde.

Tanner waited until the blonde had emptied his clip perfectly into the neck, chest and head of the target fifty yards in front of him.

The blonde also seemed to notice his presence and turned to face his new audience.

"There a problem?" asked the blonde.

"You're really good." Tanner stated.

"Yeah well I've been doing this for a while now." The blonde looked him over and noticed what the boy was carrying, "Sniper rifle?"

Tanner nodded.

"Which one?"

Tanner frowned, trying to think of the name of his gun, "Barrett."

The blonde nodded, "That's a good one." He slipped his own guns in the holsters that were under his arms. He offered the boy a hand, "Names Larabee."

"Tanner."

"You new around here Tanner?"

Tanner nodded.

"Well I'll make sure to tell the others." smiled Larabee, "We like to throw parties for new members."

Tanner frowned, not sure how he should react. He tried to pull off a smile and the result made Larabee laugh before checking himself. Larabee looked to see if their handlers were watching or not.

The two adults were too engaged in their conversation to notice what had happened.

"It may take a while, but you don't have to act like a robot around the rest of us. For the old men we 'put on a show' as Standish calls it, but you can relax around us. Come and find my room tomorrow night at six."

Tanner nodded, "Yes sir."

Larabee shook his head, "The others call me Chris."

"Chris." Tanner repeated, trying out the name.

Chris Larabee smiled before turning back to the handlers who were now done talking. As quick as Chris's smile came, it vanished and he was Larabee again.

"Tanner, let's go." called Marco.

"Yes sir."

Tanner ran to meet up with his big brother and the two left the practice yard.

Looking over his shoulder he saw Larabee standing with his handler.

Tanner ran down the cold corridor looking for Larabee's room. He had just left a meeting with Marcos a few minutes ago and the talk had went past the time he was supposed to arrive to the party. His heart was pounding as he turned down the last hall and saw a door that was slightly ajar with light shining out into the otherwise dark hall. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and was bombarded with welcomes.

Tanner didn't know how to react and his eyes grew big. He couldn't stop turning around, trying to listen to everyone who was talking to him all at once.

Covering his ears he closed his eyes, trying to calm down and keep from panicking.

"Everyone cool it." came a familiar voice.

Tanner opened his eyes and saw Chris walk up to him. "Sorry about that. They're just happy to have a reason to throw a party. I didn't think you were coming because you were so late."

"I had to meet with Marcos before this, sorry."

"There's no need to apologize." said a tall boy with sandy colored hair.

"Yeah, we would've waited for you anyway. The party is for you." said a black haired boy with a big grin.

Tanner wasn't sure how they could all smile so easily. Apparently when he smiled it was funny. He wondered if he had did it wrong.

"How about we do introductions first?" Chris suggested.

Everyone nodded and Chris turned to Tanner to explain, "So the Agency of course gave us a name. Mine is Larabee and yours is Tanner, however, we gave each other names too. We treat them like first names so our last name is used professionally by the Agency and personally around each other. I was given the name Chris."

Tanner nodded. "So when you hear the first name, that's what we call each other and last name is what the Agency calls us. Try to remember both and when to use both. If you can't remember all the names then just use our last names to play it safe. That's what he does." Chris said, gesturing to a short boy about Tanner's height with short brown hair that was curly.

"Josiah Sanchez." said the tall boy with sandy hair. He shook Tanner's hand.

"Buck Wilmington." said the black haired boy with the huge grin.

"Nathan Jackson." said the african american boy who was as tall as Chris.

"Ezra Standish." said the short boy with curly brown hair.

"So now Tanner, we're going to come up with a first name for you. Something we can all call you. Feel free to disagree with any names or offer suggestions."

Buck rose his hand first, "I like the name Flynn."

"Course you do." Ezra snorted, "You tried naming me that."

"I still don't understand why you liked Chris's name better." Buck muttered.

"What about Abe?" asked Josiah.

"No William." Nathan offered.

Tanner waited patiently for them to come up with a name for him. He was interested in the name Chris would come up for him.

"What about Royal?" suggested Buck, "Royal Tanner!"

"No one finds your jokes all that amusing." Ezra frowned.

"And you're a person with no imagination." Buck bit back.

"What about-"

"Jonah." Josiah interrupted Chris.

"I was going to say Vin." Chris said with an arched eyebrow.

"Vin?" Buck said with a scrunched nose, "Where do you come up with these names? First Ezra now Vin."

"I like it." Vin said quickly.

The boys all turned to look at him in surprise. "Vin Tanner, I like it."

Buck shrugged, "Ok then, Vin Tanner it is."

"Welcome to our little family Vin." smiled Josiah.

"It's always great to have another comrade." Ezra nodded.

"Well now that the naming ceremony is over, can we eat?" asked Buck, "We shouldn't let Nathan's hard work go to waste."

Everyone agreed and soon they were all laughing and chatting amongst each other.

Tanner sat next to Chris and only ate. He wasn't ready to start talking quite yet and only listened.

He looked up when Chris nudged him. The blonde pulled the ends of his mouth upwards in a form of a smile. There was a flash and then Tanner realised what was happening.

Ezra handed them the photo for them to look at.

Tanner looked at it.

It was a picture of him and Chris. Chris giving a small smile as he made the younger boy smile.

Tanner allowed the corners of his mouth to turn upwards and soon it turned into a full smile.


	2. Girl

~Girl~

Larabee walked silently with his handler in the busy streets of New York. It had been a month since Tanner had joined and it was to be his first mission today. Larabee and Emmanuel were only here as backup just in case something went wrong. The blonde silently prayed that nothing would, but he knew better than to wish for something that was inevitable.

Every new kid failed their first mission in some way or another, and it was always him who had to complete the job.

Tanner had gotten better, but he wasn't a cold hearted killer like they had made him before letting him do his first real mission.

Gripping the straps of his flute case, he readied himself as he and Emmanuel walked into the building. Stealing a glance over his shoulder and to an open area in the construction area across the street, Larabee could see the glint of something shiny. It was most likely the barrel of Tanner's rifle.

"Let's go Larabee." called Emmanuel when he saw his charge linger at the door too long.

"Yes sir."

Larabee closed the door and followed the man towards the elevators after going through security.

Emmanuel checked the coms that he replaced back into his ear.

"We're heading up to the fourteenth floor now to standby."

The two stepped through the elevator and walked briskly through the carpeted hallway to the closet.

Emmanuel pulled out something Larabee couldn't see and watched the leather gloved hands work as they picked the lock.

When it was open the blonde went inside and opened his case. With skills of doing this hundreds of times, Larabee assembled his Heckler & Koch and put his Ballester-Molinas in his holsters underneath his black jacket.

Emmanuel pulled out his glock and nodded his head. Larabee held his breath and waited for his queue to have to move in.

Tanner shifted his Barrett for what seemed like the fifth time as he tried to make sure he accounted for distance and wind resistance.

Checking his scope he was able to see his target on a cellphone walking around. There were three other guards in the room with the man with guns ready for anything.

Marcos had told him to take out the men with guns first before going after the target.

The boy's finger touched the trigger and he tried to think of them as targets at the target range.

He was about to pull the trigger when he saw something out of the corner of his scope. Tanner moved it so he could see that another person was in the room.

"Sir, were we aware that there is a girl in the room?"

"That is not important. What you should concern yourself about is your target and its bodyguards."

Tanner shifted his scope back in the direction of the first body guard who was standing furthest from the girl. He pulled the trigger, but besides the sound of his rifle going off, he didn't hear anything. He could only watch as the girl seemed to be doing a silent scream and his target grab her and ran away from the window.

Tanner shot off two more times to get the second body guard before he couldn't see them anymore.

"Well done." said his big brother from over his shoulder.

Tanner sat up and began packing his weapon away. He only half paid attention to what Marcos was saying into the coms.

"They should be heading your way. We shot the two body guards. One of them is armed and they have the girl with them."

Turning back to Tanner he smiled, "Why don't we see how you did? I'll call for the clean up crew."

Tanner didn't really want to but he couldn't or rather didn't know how to say no.

"Yes sir."

Larabee heard footsteps approaching him as he walked slowly down the middle of the hall.

It's a shame that a perfectly good carpet would have to get ruined.

Looking up he saw two men turn the corner and head towards him. The man who was the target holding the girl by the upper part of her arm.

Larabee stopped walking and pulled the Heckler that was hanging from a strap around his shoulder. He stood there stoically as the bodyguard pulled out his own glock.

Larabee allowed himself a small smile as he opened fire.

The body guard fell to the ground after several bullets pierced him. The girl screamed and the target cursed loudly before pulling the girl in front of himself to act as a shield. The man pulled a small pistol from his back pocket and held it up to the girl's head.

"Put down your gun or I'll blow her brains out."

The blonde bent down and set his gun on the floor slowly. All-the-while, Emmanuel was lining the man up for a shot.

When the target aimed his gun at Larabee's head.

"Bad move to sacrifice the queen to kill a pawn." Larabee smiled.

The target didn't have enough time to respond before Emmanuel shot him in the forehead.

The girl screamed again and pushed herself away from the dead body.

"We recovered the girl. Send in clean up crew." Emmanuel spoke into his com.

"Roger." came Marcos's reply.

Larabee picked up his gun and stood back up. He watched as the beige colored carpet turned red as the blood flowed onto it from the dead men.

Brushing it off, he picked his way towards the girl who was curled up against the wall silently crying.

"Get up." he said coolly.

She looked up at him with frightened eyes.

Stealing a look back at his handler, he made sure the man wasn't looking and he held out his hand. "Don't worry, we're going to get you back to your family now."

Her hand was shaking as she put her hand in his. Larabee felt like her hands felt smooth compared to his calloused ones that were rough from handling guns for years.

Helping her to stand, he tried to let go of her hand, but she wouldn't let go.

Larabee took her pass the bodies of her deceased captors and to where Emmanuel was now talking to Marcos. The blonde noticed the small boy standing near his handler, a frightened and unsure expression across his face.

Larabee led the girl over to him.

"Tanner."

"Chr- Larabee." Tanner corrected himself.

"We were able to recover the girl. You did good."

Tanner nodded and looked at the girl. She didn't make eye contact with him or even say anything. He turned to the only one who would talk to him, "Marcos brought me here to see how I did."

Larabee grimaced and stole a glance at the adults before looking back at his young co-worker.

"They're just trying to make you get adjusted to it. It's nice when you're killing them from a distance, but that won't always be the case."

Tanner nodded.

"Why...why would you kill them?" murmured the girl.

The boys both looked at her.

"It's our job." said Larabee as if he'd been saying the same line over and over again.

"But you're just a kid." she said and let go of Larabee's hand, backing away from them.

Larabee didn't notice how cool his hand felt with its absence. He stared at his feet.

Tanner looked back at the soiled carpet.

They were only kids, but Chris was right too. It was their job.

Tanner walked into the room where two other bodies lay on the floor. He looked at the window which he had shot them from. The glass had three bullet holes in it. Trace the imaginary line with his eyes, he found where both men had been standing when he fired.

Marcos walked around the room to view the bodies.

"Not bad, but your second kill was a bit sloppy. You need to be able to switch and fire off a shot to at least immobilize your mark. Otherwise they'll escape. "

Tanner looked at the dark red blood that pulled from the bullet wound in one of the men's neck. He felt sick to his stomach and his eyes burned with tears.

"Tanner. Tanner? Tanner!" shouted Marcos.


	3. Conditioning

Ezra walked into the room that he, Buck and Chris shared. His clothes had gotten bloody while out on his last mission and he wanted to change before eating.

He silently stripped and threw them in the hamper to be washed. Walking to his closet, he pulled out a clean dress shirt and slacks. After slipping into his new clothes, he looked into the mirror to make sure there wasn't any blood on his face.

He heard footsteps approaching and straightened his posture.

Chris walked in and set his flute case down on his desk table.

"Another success I assume for our very best?" drawled Ezra. It was the only time where he felt safe enough to allow his accent to be heard. He wasn't sure how his handler would like his southern drawl so he kept it between him and the other boys.

"Yeah it was fine." Chris said distractedly as he changed also.

"Are you worried about our newest?" Ezra asked, sitting on the edge of his own desk and crossing his arms over his chest.

Chris finished putting a new black shirt on and paused.

It had been over a week since Tanner had been sent for conditioning after his mental breakdown at his first job.

The other boys had felt sorry for him and Chris felt especially responsible for not being there to be a support for the boy who needed to be comforted.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. No use worrying about something you can't change."

"Yeah." Chris muttered.

The two walked to the cafeteria where the others were already seated and eating.

"How did your job go?" asked Buck as they sat down with their food.

"We were able to kill the terrorist leader and his main men." Chris said as he pushed his food across his plate.

"There was one who was pretty good." Ezra added, "It took several bullets to bring him down. He only managed to dislocate my shoulder, but considering that I could be in the stinking recovery room for a couple weeks, I think it ended well."

Nathan shook his head, "You need to stop putting yourself in unnecessary danger. What happens it Jensen puts you in conditioning?"

Everyone stopped and looked to Chris who slammed his fist on the table.

"Hell, I'm already an unsympathetic robot because of these people, but I don't want that for you guys. Ezra you need to stop being an adrenaline junkie so you don't wind up going to conditioning."

Ezra dipped his head.

"We're supposed to be there for one another if one of us has a break down." Josiah nodded.

"Hell Chris, it wasn't your fault. Junior broke down in another room. You had to take the girl back down stairs." Buck tried to reason with the blonde.

"It's not like our handlers would've allowed you to either. Hell you both could've been in conditioning." Nathan added.

They all stopped talking when they noticed Vin walking slowly into the room. He looked worn out, but was emotionless just like he was when they first met him.

Buck waved him over and he sat down between Chris and Buck.

"You look like you can use a bite. Want me to fetch you something?" he offered.

"I'm not really hungry." Vin mumbled.

"At least drink some water." Nathan said as he got up to get some.

"We heard you passed your first test, Vin. That's pretty impressive. Most of us couldn't do it and shamefully had Chris take on the burden." Ezra smiled, trying to make the younger boy feel a little bit better.

"What exactly is our job?" asked Vin.

The others frowned and tried to come up with an answer. Only Chris, who was used to trying to explain to himself what and why he was doing this job."

"We're basically the cleanup crew. The first wave. We extinguish the filth and the second wave gets rid of the filth by dumping it somewhere."

"But who says it's our job? We're kids aren't we?"

Ezra gave him a weary smile, "No, we aren't kids. Once upon a time we used to be, but now we're tools."

Vin bowed his head, _he was a tool, not a kid._

"Vin, it's important to keep your emotions in check. It's like what I said with using our names given by our handlers. We must remain professional. It's not healthy to bottle up your feelings, but it's better than continued conditioning which can kill you if you do it too much." Chris put an arm over Vin's shoulder, "If you need to cry or scream just come to one of us when it's all over and you can cry as long as you want."

"Ezra was crying and in fetal position in our room the first time he actually killed someone." Buck laughed.

Ezra threw peas at him from his plate, "Well I heard you threw up."

"Who wouldn't." Buck snapped, "I had another man's blood all over my face!"

"I think," interrupted Josiah, "That what we're trying to say is that if you ever need help you can come to one of us. We're a family now."

Vin nodded.

Standish lifted his Armatix iP1 up to eye level. He concentrated it on his target and pulled the trigger. It hit the target near the armpit and he frowned.

"You need to keep your arms steady." Jensen instructed.

"Yes sir."

Standish straightened his arms and tried to keep them from shaking as he fired. The recoil made him miss and he cursed under his breath. His hands had been shaky ever since his last job. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but if he didn't fix it soon he'd be sent to conditioning.

Jensen sighed and walked away from him.

Standish watched him go, sighing his own relief.

Jensen made him nervous whenever he stood over him. He wanted to make the man happy, but nothing ever seemed to work. His handler was nice enough when jobs had just been finished, the man would give him fancy clothes to wear as a form of reward.

The other boys would make fun of his clothes but he liked his gifts.

Josiah and his handler, Russell would go to church by request from Josiah.

Nathan would receive books from Andres and Buck was taken to see movies by Logan. Only Chris seemed to not receive anything from his handler, or anything the others were aware of.

The older boy never said anything about it and didn't say he was envious of them for their gifts. Ezra figured Chris wasn't the kind to complain.

Shaking these thoughts away, he concentrated on his target again. After he fired a few more round he heard someone approaching.

Turning, he saw Buck coming to join him.

"Sup." Buck greeted.

The younger boy knew that neither of their handlers were around but he still spoke formally, "Wilmington. I didn't know you were coming out to practice."

Shaking his head, the older boy pulled out his gun. He played with the Beretta 90two in his hand before aiming it at the target and firing.

It hit just shy of the neck region. Wilmington smiled and cocked his head to Standish. Despite being an unusual chatter box unlike the rest, the older boy was a pretty good shot. He had been in the Agency for a little over a year and proved himself a capable assassin.

Standish had only come in a half a year later than him, and while he had good hand-to-hand combat skills, he never shot to kill until it was down to his life or his mark. Ever since then he would just shoot his targets and deal with the weight of guilt at night.

Sighing, Standish held his gun up again and fired. It was a perfect shot in the x.

"I heard from Larabee that Marcos is taking Tanner out for some ice cream to congratulate him."

"Sounds nice." the younger boy said dismissively, shooting his target again.

"You think we should do something for him too?"

"Do what you'd like. It doesn't really concern me."

Wilmington frowned, "What's wrong with you?"

Standish lowered his gun and ran his hand through his wavy hair.

"I got the shakes again."

"You think Nathan can give you something for them?"

Ezra shook his head and gave the other boy a smile, "I want to fight this myself with my own power."

"But what if they send you into conditioning?"

"Then I'll know what my breaking point is."

Wilmington gritted his teeth and threw a punch towards the smaller boy. Standish reacted and caught the fist before it hit him.

Pulling his fist back, Buck smiled, "You aren't weak, Ezra. We all know that you're a fighter and will back up whatever decision you make and support you however we can."

Ezra nodded, "Thanks."

It was about the next week when Jensen had gotten a job. He and Standish climbed into his jeep and drove off to the Bronx early in the morning. The boy had his head resting against the window of the passenger side, lazily looking at the scenery fly by.

Jensen didn't talk much before a job but rather played music. He stole a glance at Standish and noticed the boy's distracted behavior.

"You ok?" he asked after a minute.

"Yes sir." Standish said automatically and sat up in his seat.

Jensen knew Standish liked to talk to calm his nerves so he forced himself to keep going.

"Do you know what you're supposed to do?"

"Yes sir."

"Something must be the matter. You're usually eager to talk."

"I'm perfectly fine, sir."

"Okay."

Standish clenched his fist and relaxed it a couple times to relax himself.

He will do a good job and get Jensen's approval.

The job was simple and supposed to be one of Ezra's more favorite thing to do which was including acting to the mission. It was one of the ways to help him cope with killing someone in the end .

The two arrived in an apartment complex in Bronx where the targets were on the third floor.

"I'll let you do your thing then." Jensen murmured.

"Yes sir." was Ezra's automatic reply before walking into the building.

He carried his concealed Armatix iP1s up his sleeves. His knives, Boker Plus, he kept near the small of his back.

The room he was supposed to find his target was near the end. Ruffling his hair and messing up his clothes a little, he got into character.

Running, he pretended to be frightened and pounded on the door with his fist.

"Help!" he pleaded, "Somebody please help me!"

The door opened and a tall man stood behind it.

"Huh, what you going on about kid?"

"Some guy just attacked me down the hall. Please help me." Ezra begged.

The man opened the door a little more for Ezra to scrambled through the little opening.

He only had a few quick seconds to assess his situation in the room before turning back the man as he shut and locked the door.

"Thank you so much. Now can you call the police for me or I can do it if you have a phone I can borrow."

"I think it best to just sit back and calm down first." the man said with a smirk.

Ezra had seen the other man that had been on the couch look at him with hungry eyes.

It was like being in a lion's den, but then he knew what he was doing. It didn't make him feel that much better being in a room full of pedophiles. These men liked to prey on young boys.

The men tried to get closer to Ezra but Ezra stopped their movements with a smirk.

"Because of this, it makes my job a lot easier." he huffed.

"What did you just say?"

Ezra looked to the first man, "Shall you be the first one to die or would you like your associate to go first?"  
"How about I teach you a little lesson you little bas-" The man didn't get a chance to finish his words, Ezra brought his palm up and drove it into the man's stomach. He then bent one of the man's arms in the wrong direction, breaking it. The man screamed for only a few seconds before bringing his heel down against the back of the man's head.

The man fell unconscious, but Ezra didn't have much time before he was being shot at by the other target. Ezra didn't waver when the bullet hit him in the arm to keep it from hitting him in the face. Sprinting, he charged the and pulled out his Boker Plus. He took down the second man slicing the man where the main arteries were located.

Standing up, he tapped on the comms, "Targets annihilated sir."

"Did you check all the rooms?"

Ezra noticed one more room still had the door closed and he walked over to it.

"I'm coming up." Jensen said before signing off.

As he approached the door, he heard voices behind it.

Ezra put his knife away and got out one of his Armatix iP1s.

The door suddenly opened where a guy had a little boy in his arms and a gun pressed up to his head.

"Put it down or I'll shoot him." the man ordered.

Ezra knew he wasn't supposed to hesitate, but he couldn't bring himself to risk the chances of hitting the boy. Calculating all the scenarios where he shot the boy instead.

Pretending to lower his gun, he aimed and shot the man in the foot. The man reacted and before the man could shoot the boy, Ezra shot the man in the hand.

Pushing his human shield away, the man ran and climbed out of the window and down the fire escape.

"Not good." Ezra groaned. He gave chase and actually jumped off the fire escape to the ground. His body sent shock messages to his brain which were then cancelled out by whatever the agency had given the boy's to make them impervious to pain.

He began running down the alley after the man.

It surprised Ezra how the man was still able to run on the foot he had shot earlier. Maybe he too was impervious to pain.

Reaching a dead end, The man turned around intending to fight his way out but Ezra wasn't having any of it. The man had had his way with that scared boy back in the apartment, and countless others. None of them deserved an easy way out. Unfortunately the others were just out for now after making quick work of putting them out of commision. He'd go slower on this one.

Shooting the man in his groin, he made the guy fall into a kneeling position. He then used his knives to pin them to the man's own legs before shooting him again, only this time in between the eyes.

"Burn in hell." Ezra muttered coldly.

"Standish." came Jensen's stern voice.

Ezra turned around and looked up to see his handler standing on the fire escape.

It hit him that he had just let his handler see that he had lost control. If he had done a proper sweep and taken the man out quickly like he should have instead of letting his feelings flare, then this whole thing wouldn't have gone haywire.

The ride home was silent. Ezra didn't feel like trying to talk and Jensen didn't bother to turn on the radio, allowing the silence to stay.

When they got back, Ezra made his way to his shared room.

Buck and Chris saw him pass by the room they were in and Buck went to go see what was the matter. When the job generally went okay, the younger boy would stop by and give them a two finger salute or thumbs up. It must've been bad to not even look up from the floor.

Ezra pulled his clothes off and skipped the part where he put some other clothes from his closet on. He didn't feel worthy wearing any of the clothes Jensen had gifted him. Instead he borrowed one of Chris's bigger black t-shirts and pulled it on. Crawling in bed, he curled up against his body pillow.

Buck knocked on the door frame before coming in the room.

"That bad today huh?" Buck said as he sat beside the bed. Ezra's face was still faced away from him.

"I let my emotions get the better of me. Larabee told us to be careful and the very next day I'm on my way to being sent to conditioning."

Buck's eyes widened, "What happened?" his voice full of concern.

"I messed up. I didn't notice the other person and my targets were pedophiles. I just- I just don't know."

Buck sighed, he placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder before getting back up to his feet.

He saw Chris standing at the door, already ready to help his young brother out. Buck would've done it himself, but Ezra always listened to the blonde. Most of the time.

Chris sat down beside Ezra and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

Ezra turned a little to look up at the blonde. His eyes had tears at the corner of them.

"I'm sorry."

"It's going to be okay Ezra. I won't let them do anything to you."

"Chris-"

There came a knock at the door and Chris glared at the sight of Jensen standing there with his hands in his pockets.

"It's time Standish."

Chris pulled his gun out and placed it on his thigh, showing the man that he wasn't above shooting the guy.

"He doesn't need to go with you. He'll be fine." Chris growled.

"Stand down Larabee before I have to get Emmanuel." Jensen warned.

Chris held up his gun, aiming it at the man's heart.

"No Larabee," Ezra finally said and put his hand on Chris's shoulder, "It's fine. I have met my limits and must deal with the consequences."

Chris gritted his teeth as he watched Ezra get up and follow his handler out their room.

The boy was wearing his black t-shirt, just like after the first time Standish had killed someone. The blonde had given the other boy one of his plain black shirts because at the time, Ezra had a lot of red clothes and he couldn't stand looking at the color.

Once again he was unable to help his family members and he hated himself for not being strong enough to pull the trigger.

 **A/N: Sorry I haven't written in this story in a long time. I promise to keep going with this story though. Love hearing from everyone and those who have asked me to continue, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting.**


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